Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest, fullest plan to rid the state of a $41 billion budget deficit is also the starkest. There’s plenty to dislike about Schwarzenegger’s plan. It chops too many billions from K-12 schools and the poor and takes more than it should from state workers’ pockets. It should raise the gas tax higher and temper a sales tax increase.

But it is a reasonable effort to strike a balance between cutting spending and raising taxes – neither of which is wise in a recession. It deserves more than a dismissive wave of the hand from those without credible alternatives.

The budget would throw tens of thousands of people off Medicaid, cut support for the disabled, lop a week off the school year (for districts desperate enough to choose the option) and 10 percent off state workers’ pay through job furloughs. Yet it would also raise four-year college tuitions 10 percent, jack up and broaden the sales tax and the income tax for most families, enact a new tax on oil production, and up the cost of a beer or a bottle of wine. It would raid funds set aside for the mentally ill and children.

Even then, it would fall 25 percent shy of balancing the budget. So, adding in one part flimsy to three parts ugly, Schwarzenegger calls for borrowing $5 billion against questionable future lottery sales and $5 billion more from lenders who aren’t giving a cent these days to their best creditors, let alone junk-rated states.

Given such distasteful options, it would be tough to fix this mess even if there were bonhomie and good faith in Sacramento. But Republican lawmakers appear content to plunge the state into insolvency rather than raise taxes. And even though the Democrats devised an ingenious scheme to bypass Republicans to fix a big piece of the budget, Democratic leaders and Schwarzenegger couldn’t cut a deal after weeks of talks. If courage fails, maybe money will move them. If the crisis continues, legislators are first in line not to be paid after Feb. 1.